the image of the philippines

we filipino expats are like ambassadors of our country in our little ways. yes we know the problems of our country blah blah but im pretty sure that when we talk about our country to foreigners we always try to say the best things. if youre watching the tv show 'community' you will remember their episode when they had to defend their school. they say it's a trashy school but no one can trash it but them. it's still afterall the same school where they met their close friends and where they learn something. yeah yeah you should get they gyst by now.


personally speaking my de facto sales pitch for PH would be our beaches. i always say that we have the world's most beautiful beaches. i usually ask them if they have been to thailand, i would give them the reassurance that ours are way prettier. that is true, i have been to phuket last march and i would still go for palawan or bohol.

last week was a good and bad week for me on my being a tourist ambassadress:

scenario 1:
i was in china with 2 customers and they were talking about wanting to go to PH. then came my usual spiel about the beauty of our country. we were with a chinese furniture boss and he relayed this story when he used to have a travel agency with some customers in the PH maybe more than 10 years ago.
he was mentioning about being not paid on time, about how he had to fly just to get the money personally, etc. then one time he was bringing a lot of money and he was tapped by customs. he said the folded 2k pesos and slid the bills into the hands of the customs officer and he managed to leave the area unscathed. he stopped his business from then on.

scenario 2:
i participated in a hikeathon and i bumped into an indian teenager (im guessing he's 11-13 years old). usual chitchat, he correctly guessed that i am from PH. he asked if PH is really dangerous for a tourist (every one here still remembers the bus incident), i answered that accidents can happen anywhere you travel. it's just blown out of proportion by the media. he said he feels sorry that it had to happen but i was glad that he's very open minded about the issue. he knows it's a big deal in hk because the victims were hk tourists. and he ended up saying he'll go to PH when he can with his parents.



every one has their good and bad images of different places. so we filipino expats will just continue to spread the good images, then try to warn them on the bad ones with a little tips on how to avoid them.